[It’s great to know, that every once in awhile, we, that is, we the People, achieve a significant victory over the forces of repression and reaction. And CCR’s legal battle to overturn ‘stop and frisk’ in NYC reminds me that back in 1980, the equivalent law here in the UK was called the “Suss Law” and its use against people of colour by the Met police eventually triggered riots that saw cities burn. The Suss Law was eventually repealed only to be re-instated (conveniently) by the phony ‘war on terror’ and used to stop hundreds of thousands of people, with virtually no ‘terror’ arrests. WB]

The leaders of three Labour Party-controlled city councils wrote a letter to the Observer, published December 29, warning that the scale of the Conservative/Liberal Democratausterity agenda could lead to “the break-up of civil society”.

The US is making new attempts to intervene the domestic crisis in Syria. Washington has made up a list of individuals and organizations it wants to see in the renewed leadership of the Syrian opposition and the new Syrian government after the victory over the “regime”.

Pictures of a crackdown by heavily armed police on protesters in Bahrain appear to be similar to many others during the Arab Spring. This time the weapons, as well as the tactics, have been imported from the UK.

High casualty numbers in Syria are reported daily by the media, even though a blackout makes them unverifiable. Things became murkier after a human rights site, which enjoyed frequent citations, split in two and began giving conflicting reports.

The British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) is one of the most widely-quoted sources of Syrian casualty figures. However the group is currently experiencing an ownership row, which has left media outlets wondering how reliable this source is.

Currently there are two sites, each claiming to be the official Observatory. The original one is in Arabic with an English version on Facebook. The splinter site was launched in December, with most posts in English. Both call each other impostors.

Troops fired tear gas during a curfew in a West Bank village to stop peaceful demonstrations

Palestinian protesters run from tear gas fired by Israeli troops in Nabi Saleh in January 2010 (Reuters)

Israeli troops fired tear gas indiscriminately and sometimes dangerously to enforce a daytime curfew inside a West Bank village to stop Palestinians holding a peaceful demonstration on their own land, a military whistleblower has told The Independent.

The soldier’s insight into the methods of troops comes as the Israeli military prepares for demonstrations predicted when the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submits an application for the recognition of statehood to the UN next week.

British prisons are full to bursting. Courts are working overtime sending young people to jail for their role in the recent riots in England. If they are sent to Leeds prison, they will be languishing alongside 85-year-old Norman Scarth.

­The senior citizen plied the Arctic Sea during the Second World War, risking his life taking essential supplies to the Soviet Union on the most dangerous journey in the world. Now, he is serving six months in prison on the whim of a British judge. His crime is recording a court hearing. He said he did it because he has hard of hearing, but the judge did not accept it.

In the wake of the riots, home secretary Theresa May proposed broad new police powers ‘to impose a general curfew in a particular area’. Other politicians proposed powers to block social network sites, or to ban face coverings.

As we outlined in a Manifesto Club statement – there is absolutely no need for more police powers. The basic power of arrest for criminal damage and theft was all that was needed: yet this power was woefully applied.

First off a special investigation into just what happened in the crucial hours in and around Tottenham police station in north London, in the lead up to the recent riots. This programme has uncovered some startling new information about what the police and the IPPC – the police complaints investigation body – did or did not do as the family of Mark Duggan waited….and waited….and waited for answers about why he had been shot.

And as they waited at the police station, bystanders gathered, onlookers arrived, the word was out that trouble was brewing – so what actions did the police take? What was the plan which they put into place knowing a demonstration over the shooting was about to unfold.

Tonight we do not go into the whys and wherefores of how and why Mr Duggan was shot that day – that is not our focus. What we uncover though are some pretty stark indications that more could have been done – way more – in the vital hours which led up to violent street disorder